The 26-year-old right-hander claimed a spot in the Philadelphia bullpen this spring by fanning 14 batters in 16 1/3 Grapefruit League innings but strained his flexor pronator muscle at the end of April and hasn’t been off the disabled list since. He can now be ruled out through the first few months of the 2013 season.

Herndon registered a solid 3.32 ERA in 57 innings of relief last season. He owns a 3.85 career ERA.

I know many Phillies fans disagree, but I like Herndon. He made great strides last season. The second half of last year he posted an ERA of 1.55 in 29 innings of work and a WHIP of 1.25 or something like that. What the Phillies wouldn’t give for somebody producing like that out of the bullpen this year.

true, but he’s been too streaky for my liking. He got hot late last year, but before then too off and on. Don’t get me wrong…the way the bullpen has been, I’m not about to say this is a good thing or anything crazy.

It’s just shocking how much has gone wrong for this team this year. It seems every week there’s more bad news (and twice today alone). Herndon isn’t the straw that broke the camel’s back or anything, it’s still somewhat early and they have young bullpen arms that might be able to overcome this. But with that said, one more good sized blow is probably more than this team can handle.